The OMFI is a common interchange framework developed in repsonse to an industry led
standardisation effort (inlcuding Avid -- a major digital video hardware/applications
vendor)

Like Quicktime the primary concern of the OMFI format is concerned with temporal
representation of media (such as video and audio) and a track model is used.

The primary emphasis is video production and an number of additional features reflect
this:

Source (analogue) material object represent videotape and film so that the
origin of the data is readily identified. Final footage may resort to this original
form so as to ensure highest possible quality.

Special track types store (SMPTE) time codes for segements of data.

Transitions and effects for overlapping and sequences of segments are
predefined.

Motion Control -- the ability to play one track at a speed which is a
ratio of the speed of another track is supported.

The OMFI file format incorporates:

a header -- include indicies for objects contained in file

Object dictionary -- to enhance the OMFI class hierarchy in an application